Many thanks to "Frodor" for
his response on the discussion of decadent music; I think it's worth
kicking around and will repeat his comments here, as they're short:

I don't feel they are decadent; however,
most of the songs of the Man in Black, Johnny Cash, are black. Boy
named Sue (tries to kill father), I walk the Line (resisting temptation),
Ring of Fire (perils of love), Delia (an Appalachian death song).

I agree that the Man in Black majors in
black themes in his music, and I also agree that dark or black themes,
in themselves, are not decadent. I proposed that the final criterion for
what's decadent is the direction of the music: "up" or "down."
To me, there's no doubt that "A Boy Named Sue" is an upper
(even if it's a song I never want to hear again, said with a grin)!
I see Johnny Cash's whole style as up, upbeat, life-affirming, even
when it admits that evil desires like murder are part of life. Certainly
"resisting temptation" ("I Walk the Line") is
an "up" affirmation of meaning in life. (The opposite, taking
temptation lightly and giving in lightly implies that there are no
consequences; in other words, in the end everything is meaningless.)
Orthodox monks often say that one of the best ways to persevere in
the fight with temptations, sin, is to keep our minds "in death";
"visit the cemetery," they often suggest. But these are
exercises meant to gain eternal life, in the hope that the remembrance
of death may "scare us" into finding the narrow path leading
to life. It's the same thing only different, as they used to say in
Blacklick Valley.

The Eminem/Elton John duet at the Emmys
Show last month (until recently downloadable on Napster...now, no
songs by Eminem or Elton John are found), is about suicide, but the
conclusion of it is "grief" about the suicide, an affirmation
that suicide is tragic because life is worth living. So the song is
up, not down, one of the many exceptions that I said can probably
be found in rap/hiphop.

After my mother's mother died, Mom started
occasionally singing what is perhaps the most morbid song I've ever
heard, A Letter Edged in Black (which I found on Napsteryes!in
a rendition by one of the "four Hanks" that Jim Martin extolled
earlier). It wallows in grief and should not even be heard by a five-year-old
as I was at the time (the closest my mother ever got to abusing me)! But although it's wallowing in thoughts of death, its point is that the loss experienced in the death of a loved family member affirms the sweetness and preciousness of life.

Earlier, I threw in the opinion that progressive
jazz in general is decadent. In that case, unlike the other examples,
the smell of death isn't in the lyrics (any song can be "jazzed"),
but the music. As the styling has no resolution and thus implies
that there is no unity, resolution, or meaning in life, it
argues for the pointlessness of it all. (In my humble opinion.)

I'm no professional in philosophy, much
less musicology. Much of my former life involved teaching church-sponsored
seminars on "meaning vs. meaninglessness" in pop culture,
so this isn't exactly new territory either. I'm saying this not to
claim expertise, but to show that at least these questions have been
concerns for some years. Usually, I formerly applied them to the movies...this
"interpretation" of pop music is new ground that I'm enjoying
turning.

Other business

I made a quick guess about the stars of
the "Eddie Duchin Story" yesterday, naming Montgomery Cliff
and Kim Novak. To which Frank Charney comments:

Jon, You have tested my movie trivia again. The "Eddie Duchin
Story" starred Tyrone Power and Kim Novak back in 1956. My Microsoft
Cinemania 97 CD that I bought at a discount computer show supports
this fact.

Which brings up another story about Tyrone Power. I recently
met an older lady, sister-in-law of a Revloc friend, originally
from Cresson. She has an autographed picture of Tyrone Power when
he spent his honeymoon at a fashionable hotel in Cresson back
in the thirties or forties. As a youngster, she skipped school
that day and waited several hours outside of the hotel to get
her treasure trove.

Best wishes, Frank

Which means I was pretty close. Not only did I
get Kim Novak right, Tyrone Power and Monty Cliff were interchangeable,
right? (Kidding, but I'll bet they were, more than once, up for the
same part.)

Webmaster
Jon Kennedy

Darting Chicken

Juan was driving down a country lane in his pickup
when suddenly a chicken darted into the road in front of him. He slammed
on his brakes, but realized that the chicken was speeding off down
the road at about 30 miles an hour. Intrigued, he tried to follow
the bird with his truck, but he couldn't catch up to the accelerating
chicken.

Seeing it turn into a small farm, Juan
followed it. To his astonishment, he realized that the chicken had
three legs. Looking around the small farm, he noticed that all
of the chickens had three legs. When the farmer came out of his house,
Juan said, "Three-legged chickens? That's astonishing!"

The farmer replied, "Yep. I bred 'em that
way because I love drumsticks."

Juan was curious. "How does a three-legged
chicken taste?" The farmer smiled. "Dunno. Haven't been able to catch
one yet."

Sent
by Mike Harrison

Priorities

If I live in a house of spotless beauty
with everthing in its place, but have not love, I am a housekeeper,
not a homemaker.

If I have time for waxing, polishing,
and decorative achievements, but have not love, my children learn
cleanliness, not godliness.

Love leaves the dust in search of a child's
laugh. Love smiles at the tiny fingerprints on a newly cleaned window.
Love wipes away the tears before it wipes up the spilled milk. Love
picks up the child before it picks up the toys.

Love is present through the trials. Love
reprimands, reproves, and is responsive. Love crawls with the baby,
walks with the toddler, runs with the child, then stands aside to
let the youth walk into adulthood.

Love is the key that opens salvation's
message to a child's heart. Before I became a mother, I took glory
in my house of perfection. Now, I glory in God's perfection of my
child. As a mother, there is much I must teach my child, but the greatest
of all is love.

The
Nanty Glo Home Page and all its departments are for and by the whole
Blacklick Valley community. Your feedback and written or artistic
contributions, also notification about access problems, are welcomed.
Click here to reply.